Agency authorized 36 permits in June, up from 20 in May

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is not being slowed down by critics of hydraulic fracturing. ODNR in June authorized 36 new permits for horizontal drilling wells used for the process also known as fracking, a record for ODNR, according to Friday's Hannah Report.

Carroll County was at the top of obtaining new permits with 11 total. Columbiana County followed with seven new permits, and Harrison County was third with nine. Chesapeake Energy Corporation obtained most of those permits, a total of 22.

CityBeat spoke with Carroll County Commissioner Jeffrey Ohler, a Republican, in June about the impact of fracking on his county. Ohler was generally skeptical of how many domestic jobs fracking had created in the county, and he said he was cautious about the long-term economic impact the influx of fracking activity could have in the area.

Critics claim fracking is too dangerous and its risks are too unclear. In a June 17 rally, environmentalist group Don’t Frack Ohio took over the Columbus statehouse asking state officials to put a stop to fracking. More than 1,000 attended the rally, according to the organization.

But some state officials, including Gov. John Kasich, say the process can be safe with regulations in place. In June, Kasich signed into law S.B. 315, which added new rules and regulations to the fracking process. Following that, Kasich signed an executive order on July 12 that strengthened state regulators with the ability to stop and impose new requirements on wastewater injection wells deemed risky or dangerous.

Fracking is a process in which millions of gallons of water are pumped underground to release oil and gas from rock formations. The water is then recycled and deposited in underground facilities known as wastewater injection wells.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and 10 other
individuals and organizations filed a letter today asking the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to strengthen its rules for
wastewater injection wells, which are used to dispose of wastewater
produced during fracking.

NRDC says the tougher regulations could
prevent more incidents like the earthquakes experienced in Youngstown,
Ohio around New Year’s Eve. The earthquakes were linked to wastewater
injection wells in the Youngstown area.

Tougher regulations could also prevent water contamination,
according to the letter. Recent investigations have found that
wastewater disposed in injection wells might be seeping through the ground
and leaking into the surface or contaminating nearby water sources. But Heidi Hetzel-Evans, spokesperson for ODNR, says regulators have not recorded any groundwater contamination from Class II injection wells in Ohio since ODNR took over the program in 1983.

In short, the NRDC letter says ODNR should make more
seismic and geological tests mandatory for injection wells. Under
current law, ODNR has to suggest more seismic and geological tests. If
they were mandatory, all operators would have to run the tests before a
wastewater injection well is approved. Along with this requirement, NRDC
also calls for more geologic information to be submitted with permit
requests.

The structure of injection wells is also a concern. In the letter, the organization calls for tougher injection well
standards that ensure the wells can withstand corrosive effects from
fluids deposited in injection wells and any hydraulic pressure
experienced during the dumping and storing process. With these
standards, it would be much more difficult for wastewater to leak
through the wells.

The letter includes additional recommendations that ask for clearer minimum standards, more water tests, checkups on wells, more protections for
landowners near injection wells, and more. The full recommendations can
be read in the letter here.

The call for more regulation is largely in response to new rules that Gov. John
Kasich signed in with an executive order on July 12. Hetzel-Evans defended the current rules by pointing out they are flexible yet often stronger than minimum requirements from the Environmental
Protection Agency.

Hetzel-Evans has not been able to see the full suggestions
in the letter yet, but she says one of the strengths of the current
rules is that they don’t burden operators with unnecessary tests. She
cited the example of some wells being way too shallow for earthquake
activity to be an issue. Seismic testings in those wells would serve no
purpose, she says.

Cincinnati City Council recently banned wastewater
injection wells within city limits. But ODNR has received no permit
requests for wastewater injection wells in southwestern Ohio.
Hetzel-Evans says southwestern Ohio’s geology makes any shale drilling
and wastewater injection wells unfeasible.

In a reaction to economic sanctions pushed by the United States, Iran today stopped exporting oil to six European nations. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the nation would no longer sell oil to Greece, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal. Also, he appeared on TV to announce that an underground bunker complex for uranium enrichment needed to create nuclear energy is now fully operational.

Some Columbia-Tusculum residents are
upset about the proposed design of new apartment buildings on the
corner of Delta Avenue and Columbia Parkway. The 76-unit Delta Flats'
design was apparently supposed to fit into the nearby business
district, which includes the Precinct restaurant.

HBO and showrunners for its new
medieval show Game of Thrones have apologized for using Bush's head
on a stake in a scene where one of the dudes shows someone a line of
traitors' heads on stakes.

Surgeons replaced a 10-year-old girl's
has blood vessel with one grown with her own stem cells. The vein was
taken from a dead person, stripped of its cells and then coated in
the girls' stem cells. Doctors says there has been a “striking”
improvement in her quality of life, according to the BBC.

Today is Presidents' Day and even though it's a federal holiday, most readers probably don't have the day off from work. You can console yourself about this affront to George and Honest Abe by learning all about the holiday's quirky history. For example, it was the first holiday authorized to commemorate an American citizen (Mr. Washington) and was split among three different holidays until President Nixon decided to consolidate them in 1971. (Thanks for that, Dick.) And here's CityBeat contributer Ryan Carpe's account of interesting anecdotes involving several presidents from Ohio.

Xavier University is facing yet another federal investigation for possible civil rights violations. The probe, the third since December, again involves allegations that campus officials didn't appropriately investigate and punish complaints of sexual assaults filed by female students. In the latest incident, 2011 XU graduate Caitlin Pinciotti charges that she was sexually assaulted in late 2008. She says the university allowed the student found responsible in a March 2009 campus disciplinary hearing to flout terms of his one-semester suspension and frequently return to campus.

Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. looks back on his 41-year political career as he prepares to retire later this year. Leis, 77, was county prosecutor and a judge before being elected to his first term as sheriff in 1987. He is perhaps best known for his 1977 prosecution of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, which was later thrown out on a technicality, and his temporarily shutting down a photographic exhibit by Robert Mapplethorpe at the Contemporary Arts Center in 1990, both of which helped solidify Cincinnati's image as a backwards, culturally inept burg on the national scene.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is in town today, stumping before Ohio's March 6 primary. Romney will visit Meridian Bioscience in Newtown this afternoon, then hold a $2,500-a-plate fundraising dinner at downtown's Great American Tower at 5 p.m.

Do you plan on using the bridge that replaces the Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River whenever it's finally built? Then you'd better have some change ready. Greater Cincinnati business leaders said tolls likely will be part of whatever financing plan eventually is cobbled together for the $2.3 billion project.

It's not just the United States and Europe that's having problems with deficits. Japan is posting a record trade deficit in January as fuel imports rose sharply following last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster. January's deficit totaled $18.5 billion, the highest since the nation began record-keeping in 1979, officials said.

Canada is threatening a trade war with the European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting in a key vote scheduled for Thursday. Canadian officials believe it would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia.